The present invention pertains to medical devices, and, in particular, to a cartridge with injection needles for a medication injection device.
A wide variety of medication injection devices are available which allow people, such as patients or health care professionals, to administer pharmaceuticals to themselves or others. Many of these devices are considered reusable, but utilize disposable injection needles as well as disposable medication cartridges, which medication cartridges each hold one or more doses of the desired pharmaceutical.
One type of known injection device is disclosed in International Publication Number WO 2005/097237, which device utilizes a disposable needle cassette or cartridge that contains a multitude of single use injection needles. Modifications to the needle cassette or cartridge are disclosed in International Publication Number WO 2008/150715, including a modification in the design of the injection needle assembly that offered, among other things, an advantage related to injection needle retraction. While functional, these needle cartridges were not without their shortcomings For example, the height of the cartridge attributable to the design of the needle assemblies contributed to the overall profile of the injection device being larger than may be desired for an associated injection device having a given feature set.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a cartridge for injection needles which is suitable for beneficial use while overcoming one or more shortcomings of the prior art.